UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Senior guard Zach Warner (Clyde) came off the bench to score a career-high 19 points and freshman point guard Jay Battle (Gahanna/ Lincoln) made two foul shots with 3.8 seconds left as the Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team upset host and OAC and Cleveland cross-town rival and No.3-nationally ranked John Carroll University, 79-78, in the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center.
The win for BW gave the Yellow Jackets a split in the season-series with the Blue Streaks and broke a three-game losing skein to JCU. Five of the last six games have been decided by four points or less, including two by two points and two by a single point.
Warner took all three-point shots and made 6 of 9 to go with one of two foul shots for his game-high 19 points. Three of his triple's came in the last six and one-half minutes of the game. Battle, who eight points and six assists, showed great poise in knocking home the game-winning foul shots. Two other keys in the victory for BW was its bench outscoring the JCU bench, 40-31, and the Jackets outscoring the Blue Streaks 36-15 from three-point range. JCU won the rebounding battle, 45-41.
In addition to Warner for BW (13-9, 87-7 OAC), sophomore All-OAC guard Cam Kuhn (Vermilion) and sophomore forward Jake Fetherolf (Norwalk) each had 12 points. JCU (21-1, 14-1 OAC) was led by junior guard David Linane with a game-high 21 points.
In the first half, JCU jumped out to an 8-2 lead at 17:55 when Linane drove to the basket and made a layup. BW came right back with a 13-0 run over a 3:26 span to take a 15-8 advantage at 14:29 when Warner made one of two foul shots.
The Yellow Jacket lead grew to double digits at 25-15 at 8:07 when Kuhn made a jump shot. The Blue Streaks countered with a 9-0 run to close the BW lead to 25-24 at 6:32. After the game was tied for a second time at 29-all, BW outscored JCU 10-6 to lead 39-35 with 56 second left in the first stanza when Warner canned his second three-pointer. The Jacket also led, 39-35, at the intermission.
In the first 18 minutes of the second half there were five ties and three lead changes with each team holding a five-point lead. BW led 56-51 at 11:49 when Zack Brandy made a layup. JCU led 76-71 at 2:23 when Linane made a layup.
BW took a 77-76 lead at 1:37 when Warner canned his sixth trey of the night. JCU grabbed a 78-77 lead at 22.7 when sophomore forward John Cirillo tipped it in. With 3.8 seconds, BW's Battle was fouled and made his first foul shot to tie it at 78-all. JCU called timeout to freeze Battle on his second attempt. The 6'2" first-year player calmly dropped his second charity toss for a 79-78 lead.
JCU had one more chance to win. The Blue Steaks inbounded the ball with 3.8 seconds left. JCU passed the ball to half court and called timeout with 3.5 seconds left. After a discussion by the referees, the clock was reset to 3.3 seconds. A Linane runner in the lane was off the backboard and off target and BW gained its upset of its cross-town rival.
BW is back in action on Saturday, February 13 when the Yellow Jackets travel to Wilmington, Ohio to play OAC foe Wilmington College in Fred Razik Arena at 3 p.m. The next home game is on Wednesday, Feb. 17 when BW hosts Ohio Northern University in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center at 7:30 p.m.
